Free Essay: World Wards, the Great Depression and a New World Order

World wars and the great depression are among the proceedings that lasted for about ten years and had adverse impacts on the economy and the social perspective of many nations. The great depression is the most prolonged depression that the industrialized countries of the world have ever experienced since it came along with changes in the economic institutions, economic theory, macroeconomic policy, and social and cultural impacts (Richardson, Anderson, Wintz and Wallace 2016). The depression began between the occurrences of the two wars, which affected most of the governments’ functions, which led to undermining some political systems around the globe, which led to a lot of tensions to the few individuals who survived the wars (Suto 2018). The great depression is said to have originated from the United States, and this caused a lot of radical decline in outputs, causing stern redundancy and some sensitive devaluation in most of the nations around the world. The economic and social and enriching impact of the great depression were no less staggering, more so in America where the citizens faced the harsh effects of the great depression. This paper will evaluate the economic and social penalties of world wars and the great depression, leading to a new world order.

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Economic Effects

The severity and timing of the occurrence of the great depression varied substantially among or across different nations around the world, especially in Europe and the United States. However, the impacts of the event were mild in Japan and much in some parts of Latin America. Declines in the consumer demand, misguided federal government’s policies, and financial panics made the economic output of United States to fall which affected almost half of the other worlds nations since the impacts affected the gold standards which acted as the link of all the countries to the network through the fixed exchange rates (Temin 2016). The world wars led to the great depression, which was enormous since it influenced or contributed to the human sufferings and some profound changes when it comes to the economic policy of the countries. During the second half of the 1920s, Great Britain started to experience low growth and recession, which led to a decline in industrial production, which was almost one-third of what the United States was producing (Temin 2016).

Also, on the other hand, France was experiencing a short downturn around the 1930s, which affected industrial production and the price of the products. However, the great depression played a considerable responsibility in the development of the macroeconomic policies which were intended to affect or tamper with the economic downturns and upturns. Also, the primary mandate or role of monetary contraction and reduced spending gave rise to the most influential economist in the world such as John Maynard Keynes in creating ideas which suggest that through the increase in government spending, monetary expansion and tax cuts can be used as a form to counteract or reduce the depressions (Benmelech, Frydman and Papanikolaou 2019). Moreover, the depression led to the rise of many activist policies in most nations, fighting or advocating for the stabilization of employment by the government. Therefore, most of the countries around the world have developed legislatures, and even central banks are always attempting many options or strategies to moderate or avoid recessions soon, just like that of the great depression and world wars.

Social Impacts

No country all over the world can emerge from the cauldron of country crisis without experiencing social and cultural changes. Through the depression, most of the business in other nations perished while other countries merged stronger; this led to the new formation of expression in the culture of despair. Moreover, one of the significant consequences associated with the event was the increase in crime rate activities (Social and Cultural Effects of the Depression [ushistory.org] 2020). Most of the individuals have been unemployed, which made them turn into petty thieves to try and provide for their families during difficult times. Also, there were so many cases of malnutrition, which were mostly accompanied by suicidal cases, and this is because the families and the large population at large did not afford to put food on the table for their families. Higher education became out of reach to most American families since many of the country’s colleges, and universities experienced their students’ bodies getting shrink in the first half of the ten years during the world war (Suto 2018). Last but not least is that the great depression affected the demographic trends across many nations since most of the individuals delayed their marriages because the males wanted to be financially fit so that they could provide for their families before deciding to propose to their prospective spouse or partner.

In conclusion, the great depression event brought a lot of dynamic changes in the political-economic and social structures of most nations around the globe. However, most of the consequences of the event are negative when compared to the positive ones. However, still, the game was able to bring out new economic policies that the countries have been adopting to avoid falling again in case the event happens again in the future. Therefore, the economic and social policies adopted by the nations are apparent that the great depression played a significant role in how the world economy and social structure look in modern society.

References

Benmelech, E., Frydman, C., and Papanikolaou, D., 2019. Financial frictions and employment during the great depression. Journal of Financial Economics, 133(3), pp.541-563.

Richardson, R.N., Anderson, A., Wintz, C.D., and Wallace, E., 2016. The Great Depression and World War II, 1930-1945. In Texas (pp. 339-361). Routledge.

Suto, I., 2018. Economic and Social Backgrounds of Top Executives of the Federal Reserve Before and After the Great Depression. In Coping with Financial Crises (pp. 149-192). Springer, Singapore.

Temin, P., 2016. Great Depression. In Banking Crises (pp. 144-153). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Ushistory.org. 2020. Social And Cultural Effects Of The Depression [Ushistory.Org]. [online] Available at: <https://www.ushistory.org/us/48e.asp> [Accessed 8 June 2020].